Gabriel Kahane with Eleni Mandell

Description

Gabriel Kahane has established himself as a leading voice among a generation of young composers who are redefining music for the 21st century. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “an all around dazzling performance” in his orchestral debut of the premiere of his song cycle Orinoco Sketches, with John Adams and the Los Angeles Philharmonic last season, Kahane’s work defies classifications. 2012 saw Kahane’s Carnegie Hall recital debut in addition to appearances at the University Musical Society of Ann Arbor, the Carolina Performing Arts Center, the Library of Congress, and dates with the Alabama Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His rich and focused sophomore album, Where are the Arms, featured collaborations with Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Antony and the Johnsons, The National), Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, Richard Swift, Pedro The Lion), and Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, St. Vincent), in eleven intricate and literate songs. Launched by his 2006 song cycle Craigslistlieder, Kahane has been commissioned by, among others, Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Caramoor Festival. As a theater composer, he has received commissions from the Signature Theater in Arlington, VA, and the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts. An avid chamber musician, Kahane has performed with such artists as Alisa Weilerstein, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, and the Calder Quartet. A recipient of multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo, Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, in close company with a century-old piano and many books. Gabriel Kahane's website

“Mr. Kahane wrapped his strong catchy melodies and stylish piano playing in arrangements for strings, winds and brass that revealed a composer’s ear for color, balance and counterpoint. Mr. Kahane’s singing, comfortable and nuanced in past encounters, was a revelation here; at times he combined a pop balladeer’s directness with a jazz singer’s fluid phrasing, reaching new heights of expressiveness.” – New York Times

Eleni Mandell:

"Mandell was weaned on artists like Tom Waits and X, and her dark and sexy songs have been compared to those of everyone from Chan Marshall to Patsy Cline. She has a sometimes smoky, sometimes wistful delivery, and, more often than not, her songs take on love from some new perspective." -The New Yorker Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Eleni Mandell has been feeling the love from listeners, critics and fellow musicians alike. Her singular gift for writing wry, literate songs that synthesize jazz, country, folk, blues, rock and pop, has been noted by The Los Angeles Times as a “mix of emotional heart and musical command that marks a move into the major leagues of American singer/songwriters.” Elle Magazine described Mandell’s Miracle of Five as “an album of bluesy, sepia-tone postcard sent to possibilities come and gone.” and Entertainment Weekly pronounced Miracle “a perfect bedtime album for grownups who ought to know better but can’t help hitting the sack dreaming of true love.”

Mandell’s latest album I Can See the Future anticipates the future through an eye to the past, second-guessing love affairs and seeing former lovers as they are. Whether reflecting on the past, growing wiser about the present, or preparing for the future, she never loses her masterful songcraft or her voice that is as lovely as it is versatile.